The Jamestown Area YMCA, located at 101 Fourth St. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

Jamestown Area YMCA officials are taking preliminary steps toward possibly finding a new location.

Mark Eckendorf, Jamestown Area YMCA CEO, told The Post-Journal that YMCA officials have been looking at properties along the Foote Avenue medical corridor as possible new locations, but nothing has been finalized.

“We are looking down there. We don’t own any property. It’s kind of a ‘what if’ possibility,” Eckendorf said. “We are looking around at other places too. We did a survey of the community about six months ago to gauge interest in the YMCA moving down there and it was positive.”

Eckendorf said YMCA officials are looking into possibly moving from their Fourth Street location because at some point the two area YMCAs, which also includes the Lakewood YMCA, have to possibly consolidate operations.

“It is very unusual to have two (YMCAs) within 7 miles,” he said. “To be so close, our market place overlaps about 80 percent. We have two, 85,000-square-foot buildings. We are on top of each other. At some point, most likely, the (YMCAs) will have to merge unless we find someone, a tenant, to share with us to cut overhead by sharing a building.”

Eckendorf said the search for a possible new location is a preliminary step to a possible consolidation, with nothing being “concrete” at this time.

“It’s preliminary looking around. We have to do something eventually and we’re trying to find the right place where everything works out,” he said.

Last September following untrue rumors that the Lakewood YMCA would be closing, Eckendorf said YMCA officials have conducted various studies during the past several years regarding potential options for consolidating the two YMCA facilities that are currently located in Jamestown and Lakewood. The ongoing study was described by Eckendorf as a “refresher” to a study completed two years ago regarding consolidation. Eckendorf urged that there are no imminent plans that would impact either of the two facilities.

Eckendorf attributed the misinformation about a building closing to a data gathering campaign within the marketing study that contacted community members about potential consolidation via telephone and email. The marketing study was conducted by Phil Balducci of the Florida-based agency PB & A Market Place Intelligence.